The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a physiological monitoring apparatus capable of notifying occurrence of abnormalities or changes in a patient's condition.
An apparatus which has been hitherto used widely measures physiological parameters indicating vital signs of a patient, determines if the measured physiological parameters are abnormal or have any changes, and generates a notice by means of an alarm when having determined that the measured physiological parameters are abnormal or have any changes.
For instance, Patent Document JP-A-2007-215581 provided below discloses a physiological monitoring apparatus that determines if physiological parameter input by input means are a normal value or an abnormal value and that generates an alarm by making an alarm indicator light up when having determined the physiological parameter as an anomalous value.
However, in relation to the physiological monitoring apparatus disclosed in connection with Patent Document JP-A-2007-215581, when an alarm is generated as a result of a change in a patient's condition, a healthcare personnel hitherto has to watch a display screen of a monitor in order to ascertain details of the alarm by suspending medical treatment which the healthcare personnel is performing at that point. In addition, in order to inactivate a warning (alarm) generated by the alarm indicator, the healthcare personnel must touch the alarm indicator by hand. For this reason, when performing medical care that cannot be interrupted halfway (for instance, surgical operation), the healthcare personnel has hitherto encountered difficulty in inactivating the alarm.